December's new Masters of the Universe Classics action figure at mattycollector.com is King Randor who looks like the bastard love child of Kurt Russell in The Thing and the Burger King mascot. With all the cool MOTU characters yet to be made, King Randor is sort of a weird choice. He never really did much in any of the cartoons apart from offering the occasional bit of sage advice or chuckle wisely. I think we may have our first real pegwarmer of the line.
The character in the 1980's, when shorts were short.
My real issue with this figure is a certain lack of, I don't know...pants. He's got a lot going on up on his torso with armor and long sleeves and below the waist it's like nothing but creamy man legs as far as the eye can see.
Finally! You get to play with the hero's dad!
I would hate to be in the Eternian Royal Court and have to look up at this dude sitting on his throne flashing his junk all day long. Now, I've seen a couple of different versions of this figure and it seems that the final version may have legs painted a weird spray-tanned orange to replicate his "tights," which is not a whole lot better. I'm no fashionista but I don't think that particular shade of red goes with that particular shade of orange.
If I had it my way, your outfit wouldn't clash so badly.
King Randor will go on sale on December 15th along with the bonus figure of The Goddess. This may be the first instance of the bonus figure outselling the monthly figure. We'll see. But if you want Randor, I'm sure he'll be hanging around for a while.
Note:This profile is based on the Japanese version of the movie.
THE MOVIE
During Godzilla’s first retirement after the poorly received sequel Godzilla Raids Again, Toho Studios tried their hand at a few other giant monster concepts.Varan the Unbelievable was released a couple of years after Rodan but did not seem to be given the attention or budget that was given to that movie or the later Mothra.For one thing, the movie is filmed in cheaper black and white.Rodan two years earlier was filmed in color.Although the main creature is nicely designed and interesting to look at, his suit seems to be cheaply made in comparison to Godzilla or Rodan.The movie is strangely listless and surprisingly dull for a movie of this genre and relies on long stretches of exposition and endless military stock footage and talking heads.
He's un-be-liev-able!
After an inexplicable intro about the wonders of the Space Age, we join a story about a pair of naturalists on an expedition in a remote part of Japan in search of an anomalous butterfly.They instead stumble upon a giant monster worshiped by the locals as Baradaji, a demon/god.A second expedition follows the first and Varan destroys the village.When the military is summoned they attack Varan who is able to glide away on the membranes that connect his forelegs to his hindlegs.Varan makes his way to Tokyo where he is tricked into swallowing several experimental bombs, which kill him as he heads to sea.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
Varan is somewhat of a black sheep among Toho’s monsters.His contemporaries, Rodan and Mothra, have gone on to be regulars in the Godzilla series and Mothra even starred in her own trilogy of movies in the 1990’s.Varan, however, made a cameo in Destroy All Monsters and appears in stock footage in 2004's Godzilla Final Wars.He has also appeared in a couple of NES and SNES video games.You get the feeling that he stays in his cave on Monster Island and drinks a lot. This is unfortunate because he is one of the cooler monsters in Toho’s universe (he is certainly cooler than Megalon or Titanosaurus).Varan looks a bit like Godzilla (he strongly resembles Godzilla from King Kong vs. Godzilla and therefore Millennium Godzilla) but with vertical spikes running from his head to his tail.He can walk on all fours or on his hind legs much like Anguirus.Much has been made of his ability to fly “like a flying squirrel.”It looks cheesy but most flying effects from Toho movies at this time looked cheesy. Perhaps Varan's most notable appearance since the 1960's has been in the Nintendo Wii fighting game Godzilla Unleashed, where he is a playable character.
MONSTERS FEATURED
Varan.
DVD AVAILABILITY
The U.S. version is fairly easy to find (it’s on Netflix,) however it is a good thirteen minutes shorter AND eliminates the flying sequences for some reason.The U.S. version also cuts out much of the original story and replaces it with American actors a la Godzilla King of the Monsters.While Varan is far from a great movie (or even a good movie for that matter,) I find something distasteful about monkeying around with a movie for the sake of making it more appealing for foreign markets.
If you want to get a copy of the Japanese version you can check eBay or go to ultramanstuff.com.I’ve ordered a couple of movies from them and they are okay.They take a long time to get you your movies but they do arrive and they have a great selection (looking for Godzilla '84 or Biollante? They got 'em).I’m assuming that the movies are bootlegs, but if the versions you want are not for sale here what are you gonna do?
"I came here to chew bubblegum and smash buildings...and I'm all out of bubblegum."
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
Eh.
SEQUELS
None.
SEE ALSO
Rodan 1956Mothra 1961Gojira 1954
When's it going to be Varan's turn?
TRIVIA
There have actually been a couple of attempts to bring Varan back to the screen after Destroy All Monsters.He was originally to be featured in Godzilla vs. Gigan but was later cut from the movie.Most famously, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Giant Monsters All Out Attack, was to originally have been Godzilla X Varan, Anguirus, Baragon, Giant Monsters All Out Attack but Toho was reeling from the box office failure of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and insisted that director Shusuke Kaneko work A-list Mothra and King Ghidorah into the story, which is unfortunate because it would be nice to see a revamped version of Varan (there are photos online of the model of the redesigned Anguirus that was to have been featured in the movie and it is amazingly cool.)
"And though I been around clowning with the Underground I'm still down with my homies from the hometown. And if you need, need anything at all, I'll drop it all for y'all If my homies call."
I've never been the biggest 2Pac fan. I never claimed to be. If I had to listen to 2Pac I would definately choose his days with Digital Underground over his Death Row Dr. Dre days. I always found it hard to believe that he went from partying with Humpty Hump to living on Death Row. That's like being a Hobbit and growing up in the Shire and then you move to...fuck it you move to Compton. But I give credit when credit is due and 2Pac deserves credit for one of the best hooks on a 90's hip hop track. "If My Homies Call" is a cut. This is what I consider "Get Out My Way" music. That means if I hear this when you're around me get out my way because I'm gonna tear it up. This track has everything you want in a hip hop song, a hot beat and story telling lyrics to go. When that bass line kicks into that piano breakdown and vice versa well, it can't be faded.
Read the previous entries to this series here and here.
In the three years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, the Clone Wars have raged on without a clear victor, Palpatine has assumed emergency powers that erode the democratic fiber of the Republic, and the Jedi have narrowed their search for the Sith Lord to Palpatine’s inner circle. In this third movie in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, we see the fall of both the Republic and the Jedi and the rise of the Empire and the Sith.
At the movie's start the Confederation of Independent Systems have launched a massive attack on the Republic Capital world of Coruscant. Palpatine has engineered to have himself captured by the separatists, both politically inoculate himself when he returns and to lure Anakin Skywalker to the rescue to test him against Dooku. The Sith seem to operate under a brutal system in which they are constantly tested against opponents for the honor of assuming mastership or apprenticeship. We see this later on in Return of the Jedi as Vader and Luke are pit against each other by the Emperor. This scene aboard Dooku's ship in Episode III is designed to visually resemble that later one on the second Death Star.
Odds are Dooku knows he’s being tested but does not consider Skywalker a serious opponent. No doubt Palpatine’s money is on Skywalker.
Anakin and Obi-Wan fly their way to Dooku’s warship through hundreds of enemy fighters. Interestingly, Anakin has to be restrained from flying back to assist the clone pilots who are covering him and Obi-Wan. We are clearly shown that his decision to obey Obi-Wan results in the clones death. Even this late in his story, Anakin still is intent on being loyal to those in his charge. It's not about how evil he has become but how good he still is. Leaving these troopers to die is the first of many perceived compromises he is asked to make for the Jedi during the course of this movie.
Obi-Wan and Anakin reach Palpatine and begin a lightsaber battle with Dooku, who knocks Obi-Wan unconscious early on. Anakin and Dooku then battle one-on-one and soon Dooku is overpowered by the younger man. Anakin here has the choice to capture Dooku alive (and bring him to justice) or to kill him (against the Jedi Code). At Palpatine’s urging, Anakin beheads his opponent. Now Palapatine has struck a fatal blow to Anakin’s relationship with the Jedi Order.
"They say we're young and we have no chemistry..."
When he returns to Coruscant, Anakin meets with his secret wife Senator Padme Amadala. She informs him that she is pregnant and almost immediately he begins to have prophetic dreams that she will die in childbirth. These dreams mirror the Force-visions he had that previewed his mother’s death in Attack of the Clones. He soon becomes obsessed with saving his wife.
One has to wonder from where these dreams come. Are they a true Force-vision? Cinematically they are unique in that they are the only dream sequences in a Star Wars movie. And they seem to be direct copies of shots we see at the end of the movie, only overlain with a dark cloudy effect. Also notable is that when Anakin had visions of his mother's death in the previous movie, they were never shown to the audience. He simply described them. Perhaps these visions of Padme’s death are meant to be more presentational because they are not true visions at all.
We never really learn the extent of Darth Siddious' abilities in the movies but he seems to excel at mind powers. Talking about Episode II, I touched on the fact that Siddious has a limited precognition. That he is able to see far enough into the future to know how make things happen for him. Perhaps he saw a possible future in which Anakin caused his wife’s death and was somehow able to send him that image while Anakin was sleeping, thus ultimately causing the possible event to come to pass and creating a great predestination paradox.
In any case, Palpatine takes the bold step of assigning Anakin to be his personal representative to the Jedi Council, much to the Order’s dismay. The Jedi do not like politicians interfering in their affairs and are suspicious of Palpatine by this point. In response, they make the unJedi-like move of ordering Anakin to spy on Palpatine, who is almost a father figure to him. More accurately, they make poor Obi-Wan do it off the record.
Something is rotten in the JediTemple by the third movie. In the previous two entries we have seen a certain callousness, arrogance, and penchant for secrecy but it seems as the Sith threat grows
imminent the Jedi become even more deceitful and hypocritical. They seem all too willing to break the rules that they have established. The problem is that they just aren’t that good at it. Palpatine can play Anakin like a fiddle. All the Jedi can do is send schlepy Obi Wan to talk him into some ham-handed spying job. They are completely clueless about human relationships and personal loyalty. When Anakin asks Yoda’s advice about his dreams of losing someone close to him all Yoda can tell him is to get over it. I love this scene because it is a great example of how the Jedi Order really does fail Anakin, bringing about their own doom. Perhaps if Qui-Gon Jinn had survived things would have been different...
With Dooku dead, the Republic focuses on General Grevious, his cyborg second-in-command and the defacto leader of the CIS. Obi-Wan is sent after him (and away from Anakin) and he effectively ends the Clone Wars. In an ominous scene, the Jedi spookily gather around a holograph table and discuss
removing Palpatine from power and temporarily taking over the government.
Yoda, doing his best Fred Sandford. "I'm comin' for ya 'Lizabeth!"
The Jedi send Anakin to inform Palpatine of the war's end to see if he will give up his war powers and restore democracy. Instead, Palpatine finally reveals himself to Anakin as a Sith Lord and he tells him he has the power to save Padme’s life. Anakin flees and tells Mace Windu who gathers a team of second-string Jedi Council members to arrest Palpatine/Siddious. Instead Siddious cuts down all but Mace Windu and the two have an epic duel in Palpatine’s office. Anakin arrives to find Mace Windu ready to strike Palpatine down for good and possibly eliminating the only hope of saving his wife.
"Are you ready to rock?"
Anakin protests that killing an unarmed prisoner is not the Jedi way, perhaps still feeling guilty for his murder of Dooku. Here, again, we have Anakin’s fatal flaw: he is not that smart. He needs help navigating complex ethical terrain and the Jedi seem not to be consistent about their positions. Here you have Mace Windu, a senior member of the council ready to strike down a prisoner. Palpatine has been more understanding and accepting of Anakin than all of the Jedi, even Obi-Wan. The Jedi had not wanted Anakin from the beginning and have been distrustful of him ever since.
Mace Windu’s only response is that Palpatine is too dangerous to live, which echoes Palpatine's
words about Dooku earlier in the film. Interesting that Lucas would put the same words in Windu’s mouth as in Darth Siddious. While Mace Windu is certainly not evil, one gets the impression that he has become fanatical about discovering and eliminating the Sith. At this point he would do just about anything if it meant destroying them. This is supported by Samuel L. Jacksons performance and the way he is shot in the scene. He actually looks creepier than Palpatine most of the time.
It is this last act of hypocrisy that finally pushes Anakin over the edge as he cuts Windu’s arm off, preventing him from striking Palpatine and he stands back as the Sith force-electrocutes/pushes the Jedi out the window. Which is not to say that Anakin is against all forms of hypocrisy. He engages in it from now until the end of the movie. It’s just that he is too thick-headed to try and figure out other people’s hypocrisy. Having gone in this deep Anakin swears allegiance to the Sith and becomes Siddious' new apprentice and is tasked with eliminating the Jedi at the Temple and eliminating the leaders of the CIS who are no longer needed in the post war Empire.
Palpatine's most evil plan was to disguise himself as an old British nanny so that he could spend more time with his estranged children. He called himself Mrs. Sithfire.
Padme and Obi-Wan track him down to hidden location where he has killed the leaders of the CIS. After his wife declines to join him in ruling the galaxy, Anakin loses his temper and Force-chokes her. He and Obi-Wan fight it out on the surface of a volcanic planet.
Meanwhile on Coruscant, Palpatine makes a Stalin-esque speech declaring himself Emperor. This is where the movie reveals itself as post 911, Liberal hysteria. Palpatine is a kind of nightmare of George W. Bush: A figure that strips our democracy away piece by piece, creating a police state in the name of security. Lucas claims his ideas about the prequels stem from the Nixon era but the timing and parallels are pretty clear. "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy," Anakin tells Obi Wan, in a very
Bush-like moment.
Yoda, seeking to invoke budget reconciliation to get around Palaptine's filibuster. CSPAN must be much cooler in the Star Wars galaxy.
This is all intercut with a battle between Yoda and Palpatine on Coruscant. It is striking that this, perhaps the climactic duel in the trilogy, takes place on the Senate floor. This is the ultimate political brawl where ostensibly the most powerful forces of good and evil face off. At one point in the fight they are whipping senate pods-literally, the vehicles of democracy-at one another. Yoda eventually concedes this fight-after
all this is Palpatine's arena. It is a fitting climax for a trilogy of movies that are above all preoccupied with politics and the way that democracies go astray. While the original Star Wars movies were often described as modern myths, the new trilogy are modern political allegories.
People magazine revealed their Sexiest Man Alive issue this week and it's Johnny Depp. Apparently they didn't get my photo submission:
Haters. Speaking of haters. Oprah announced that she is ending her show after 2011 and the haters are out celebrating. I don't understand why someone would hate Oprah? What is it that you hate about someone who has a billion dollars, takes their employees (and me!) on paid vacations, and helped elect the country's 1st Black President? Oh you hate yourself and your job because those are things you can't do? Oh okay. That makes sense. I could've sworn I thought I heard you say you hate Oprah. Alright let's get away from the hate and spread the love. My boy Kyle Kinane has a site called I'm dead and it's all my fault. You should holler at that cause it's funny. What.
That's it. Got it. I'm gone. But if you wanted to keep kicking it with me follow me on Twitter.
CALL OF CTHULHU (2005) Directed by Andrew Leman Genre: Silent/Horror
THE MOVIE:
While many movies are Lovecraftian in tone and content there are very few serious H. P. Lovecraft adaptations out there. It seems that most filmmakers would prefer to freely borrow elements from his fiction instead of adapting his stories whole. Along with Edgar Allen Poe, Lovecraft is remembered for his stylistic and thematic contributions more than for any one memorable story. Because of this you have Lovecraftian elements in everything from Alien to Howard the Duck and Hellboy.
Will you accept the charges?
The acclaimed 2005 short film Call of Cthulhu is an audacious 47 minute adaptation of the story of the same name lovingly produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It is audacious because it attempts to produce the film in a style that is contemporary to the story’s 1926 publication date. Call of Cthulu is a presented as a silent movie. It is shot in black and white, complete with title placards, pancake make-up and Twenties-style acting. In addition to being fun to watch and stylistically cool, all of these conceits help to nicely mask the fact that the movie was shot with a minimal budget.
Call of Cthulhu is the story of a man’s investigation into the mysterious worldwide Cthulhu cult and its connection to his uncle’s death. The movie frequently uses a boxed narrative as the many characters describe their brushes with the mighty Cthulhu and his human worshippers. This ultimately leads to a physical confrontation with the awakened Old One in his mysterious city.
"Toto, we're not in Dunwich anymore."
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
When he finally appears, the titular monster is realized with stop-motion effects. While it is not particularly good stop motion it feels appropriate to the overall 1920’s tone of the film.
"Dr. Zoidberg, is that you?"
In the vast and complicated Lovecraft pantheon, Cthulhu is a giant god/monster/alien slumbering beneath a “Cyclopean” city on an island in the Pacific. He is worshiped as a god by human cultists but he is utterly unknowable and indifferent to humanity. He doesn’t have a ton of screen time in Call of Cthulhu so you don’t get a really good look at the stop motion puppet which is probably for the best.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
The Great Old One, Cthulhu.
Love craft, for the gal on the go.
DVD AVAILABILITY:
On Netflix and available for purchase online.
The DVD features interviews with the creators and a good amount of extras.
He's the hero this city deserves.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
The whole movie is remarkable and probably like nothing you have ever seen. It’s worth checking out for the novelty if no other reason. SEQUELS:
None.
TRAILER:
SEE ALSO:
Dagon (2001)
TRIVIA:
*H. P. Lovecraft was a racist, a snob, and probably the 19th Century equivalent of an unsocialized computer nerd but ultimately a visionary and a genius.
*Another Lovecraft adaptation is in the works. Director Guillermo Del Toro is attempting to adapt the novella At The Mountains of Madness, which has influenced such movies as The Thing and even Alien vs. Predator.
How we living peoples? Here's the teaser trailer to Clash Of The Titans. I'm actually surprised at how much I was into this trailer. This movie already had two strikes going against it for me. It's a remake, strrrike 1! And the lead is Sam Worthington, strrriii-actually hold off on that. Sam Worthington isn't a bad thing. Honestly I just don't understand his popularity. Where'd he come from? When he was cast in the lead in Terminator 4:Go Hate Yourself I had no idea who he was but part of me felt like I should have. Now he's got Avatar coming up in December and Titans next year. Good for you Sam. Clash of The Titans arrives in theaters on March 26, 2010. Check out the trailer for yourselves. Look closely to see quick glimpses of the cool monster designs, Liam Neeson as Zeus, and absolutely no sign of the original star Harry Hamlin.
SIDE BAR: When I went to Google images to find the poster for Clash Of The Titans it gave me the following as one of the choices:
The answer to this question is and will always be Hell Yes. Why? Exhibit A. Stevie tearing it up on Sesame Street. That's right. Sesame Street. Talk to this.
Hey Hey Hey! Here's the trailer for the upcoming "Kick Ass". First off I love the poster above. It reminds me of the poster for Spider Man 2.
Something about the image of a hero looking over a city has always struck a chord with me. That being said it's still hard to trump this Dark Knight poster.
Something about Batman not even looking at the city and burning his symbol in the side of a building proves my theory once again that you're never going to grow up to be normal after your millionaire parents are murdered right in front of you.
But let's keep kicking it with "Kick Ass" shall we. "Kick Ass" is about a group of kids who take it upon themselves to become superheros. You had me at the word "Kick" my beloved film. CHUD wasn't crazy about the trailer. The trailer doesn't exactly knock it out the park but it's a teaser and it accomplishes just that. CHUD says the footage they saw at Comic Con is what's really going to turn people onto this film. We shall see. "Kick Ass" arrives in theaters on April 16, 2010.
You can check out the rest of the "Kick Ass" posters here.
(*This installment has won the award for "Most Appearances By The Words Kick Ass In One Blog". It would like to thank it's Mom and Jesus.)
Peter Hyam’s The Relic was one of the more visually impressive monster movies of the 1990’s.The movie was adapted from the novel Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.The Relic takes the very strong core concept from the novel-a monster stalking the halls of a natural history museum after hours-but leaves out almost everything else that made the book such a good read.As is the case when almost any novel is adapted to the screen, the plot is streamlined, characters and motivations rearranged or eliminated (in this case they decided to cut out a character who is perhaps the greatest detective in contemporary fiction, Special Agent Pendergast).This is to be expected.But The Relic replaces what was a fun and smart read and replaces it with a cookie cutter monster movie screenplay.
There’s clumsy exposition such as the scene where Margot Green takes Lt. D’Agosta on an extended tour of what will be the movie's final action set piece so that the audience knows EXACTLY how everything works when we see it later. There are clunky “character” moments such as D’Agosta’s unfunny running joke about his ex-wife getting custody of their dog (WTF?).There’s ridiculously advanced technology that conveniently advances the plot, such as Margo’s DNA Sequencing program that can not only identify animal species from a blood or tissue sample in a matter of minutes but can identify the DNA of an individual human being complete with name and photo.It’s silly in 2009.It was even more so in 1997.All that being said, The Relic is a fun and adequate monster movie with a very cool and memorable monster: the Kothoga.
Larry Craig's evening goes horribly wrong.
The movie is set at the fictitious Chicago Natural History Museum where a mysterious package containing a small statue and some weird leaves arrives from an anthropologist who has gone missing in Brazil.Soon, researcher Margo Green is drawn into a murder investigation at the museum where people are being decapitated and having their hypothalamus glands ripped from their brains.The city officials decide to keep the museum open for a special fundraiser (shades of Jaws) and the monster strikes, trapping a bunch of high-society douchebags in the museum. Margo and D’Agosta try to find a way to stop the beast while the others attempt to escape through the sewers.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
The Kothoga (or Mbwun in the book) is one of the better recent movie monsters despite his harebrained origin.He combines elements of a large mammal with reptilian and insectile features.He has large tusk-like mandibles and saurian claws.Perhaps most remarkable is his range of movement.This was striking at the time because prior to the ‘90’s movie monsters were very limited in how they could move so it was a lot of fun seeing this movie in the theater and watching the Kothoga run, leap and climb on walls. The effects are quite good considering it was a medium-budget film from 1996 and they have held up quite nicely in decade-plus since the film was released.
I really want to see the Kothoga fight the monster from The Host.
A face only a mother could love. Well, Predator's mother.
MONSTERS FEATURED
Kothoga
A large bug
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
I like the Kothoga vs. SWAT team sequence in which the monster acrobatically attacks a police team trying to descend into the museum lobby via the skylights.
Also good is a dryly humorous scene involving an autopsy.
"This test will determine whether or not you are actually Michael Madsen."
DVD AVAILABILITY
Widely available in a bare bones DVD release with little in the way of special features.
SEQUELS
None to the movie.
The book had a direct and fairly unpredictable sequel, Reliquary. The characters introduced in Relic (especially Pendergast) continue on to a whole series of books, most of which tease us with the possibility of a monster without delivering.
This is not the mostridiculous monster you've ever seen.
SEE ALSO
A Sound of Thunder 2006 Mimic 1996
TRAILER
00:00 Good beginning. Spooky museum stuff.
00:11 Damn, Penelope Miller wears some big ass 90's glasses in this movie.
00:27 Ah, I forgot about the black security guard who smokes weed in the bathroom. God bless you, racial stereotypes.
01:23 "From The Producer of Aliens and Terminator 2." Holy shit. Somebody's slumming.
01:30 More big, flat-ass glasses. "33% Homo Sapiens." I don't even think Tom Sizemore is 33% Homo Sapiens.
01:35 Oh that old dude in the wheelchair. With his "Callista" theory. Shut up.
01:53 No they did not just shoot a pair of monster teeth out at me and have that change into the title.
TRIVIA
The movie's setting is changed from NewYork City to Chicago. The museum exteriors and a couple of shots of the main hall were filmed at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago but the rest of the museum locations were filmed on sound stages.Preston and Child’s book was originally set at a fictitious museum analogous to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Unfortunately NYC and Chicago are not exactly the same. There is a subplot in the book and a major plot point in the sequel about the creature hiding in the abandoned tunnels beneath New York. Chicago doesn't have all of those century-old abandoned subway tunnels and stations or huge communities of Mole People that New York has.
Coming later this month to mattycollector.com is the hotly anticipated Masters of the Universe Classics figure, Scareglow. Scareglow has always been a mysterious character, due to the fact that his appearances in MOTU have been scarce. He was released at the end of the 1980's toyline and was never actually in the Filmation cartoon. He was also never included in the 2002 relaunched series. His sole appearances to date have been in a few comics.
Ali G once asked the important question: Why is all skeltonz involved in evil stuff?
On top of that, he was confusingly listed as The Evil Ghost of Skeletor in his vintage release. People can be forgiven for wondering if he was actually somehow Skeletor's ghost. After all, there is somewhat of a resemblance around the eyes. However, as often happens, the collective imagination of the fandom is better than the people who write the stories, and now Scareglow is listed as The Evil Ghost Serving Skeletor. So instead of being Skeletor's ghost from the future, he's just some ghost who works for Skeletor. And happens to look like him.
"Hello, my name is Scareglow. I'll be serving you tonight. Can I start you off with any drinks or appetizers?"
As with the original figure, Scareglow features a glow in the dark skeleton design painted on a black body. The effect is something like that of a large muscly man who is wearing a skintight skeleton Halloween costume. He was originally going to dress as the Joker, but that's kind of played out.
What the hell does a ghost need bones for, anyway?
Scareglow goes on sale at 12PM shart on November 15th at mattycollector.com. The He-Man figure released in January will also be reissued that day. Scareglow should be a big seller so I wouldn't wait too long to grab him. That is, unless you are too scared.
Fun fact: Back in the '80's, when he still had his Gheri curls, he was known as Soul Glo.
The Terminator was only a modest hit when it was released in 1984 but it was one of a new generation of movies that found a second life on home video, where it was incredibly popular.Perhaps single handedly, the movie popularized the R-rated sci-fi action movie, taking a clever science fiction plot and wrapping it in the trappings of a violent action movie.The low budget works in the movie’s favor, giving it a grimy and realistic 1980’s feel, as does the oily synthesized score.Cameron’s script and direction give the movie his characteristic “heart” that makes it a richer experience than the lesser action pictures of the day.Let’s not forget that at its core, The Terminator is as much a love story as the director’s later Titanic. The Terminator and his next movie, Aliens, are Cameron's two masterpieces but Terminator gives us a leaner, more stripped-down, action movie.
Don't blame me, I'm not sewf a-wee-ah.
The intriguing premise of The Terminator is that in the future, machines rule a post-apocalyptic word.A defense computer called Skynet became self aware and decided that all humans were a threat to its existence and instigated a nuclear war.Upon Skynet’s defeat by human rebels, it used the same wonky logic to send a cyborg assassin back in time to kill the mother of John Connor, the man who would lead the human resistance.I’m a sucker for a good time travel story and the paradoxes that often occur in these types of tales (I’m one of the few enthusiastic fans of Back to the Future 2).
In The Terminator, you have a couple of good predestination paradoxes.First, John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect his mother.The two fall in love and end up conceiving John Connor.So it is Connor’s (presumably knowing) decision to send Reese back that results in his own conception.Could he have chosen to send someone else instead?Since Connor obviously was conceived, would events have had to work out so that Reese would have been sent back in time no matter what?A similar paradox occurs with the development of Skynet because of sending the Terminator back in time.Skynet, insured its own existence by providing the physical technology in the form of the Terminator, whose remains were then studied by scientists and reverse engineered to eventually develop the Skynet and Terminator architecture (this is confirmed in deleted scenes and later in T2).
People are generally left with such a strong perception of Sara Connor from T2 that they forget just how quirky and girly she is in the original movie, with her pink smock, feathered hair and pet lizard.This movie also features some other Cameron regulars.Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton (one of the punks in the beginning) would all go on to do Aliens.Genre and B-movie actor Brian Thomson (Cobra, The X-Files, Star Trek: Enterprise) also is featured as one of the punks dispatched by Arnie early in the movie.
Thematically, The Terminator explores the fertile tech noir science fiction territory of “Man vs. Machine,” much like The Matrix Trilogy and even the reimagined Battlestar Galactica TV series.It is interesting to compare the Terminator post-apocalyptic future with that depicted in The Matrix as both feature futures in which machines have taken over the world and enslaved humanity.Like many classic depictions of the future from the Twentieth Century, Cameron's future is very hardware oriented.The emphasis is on robots and machinery.By contrast, The Matrix was made at the very end of the century and the internet had already become widely used and computers were in a majority of homes in one form or another.The new depiction of the future was now software oriented.This is so true that the “terminators” of the Matrix movies, the Agents, are actually computer programs without physical manifestations in the “real” world and most of the story took place in a virtual reality. Terminator Salvation tried to present a more high tech facet of this future but the premise is still very rooted in the 20th Century.
Terminator, going commando.
Finally, the movie (and its sequel) works on a visceral level because they tap into the common fear of being pursued by an unstoppable force that means to do you harm.There’s something terrifying about the fact that even if you escape once, the thing will be out there waiting for you.Particularly scary is the limping endoskeleton that slowly and inexorably pursues Sara down in the factory at the end of the movie.And the damn thing is tough: it is shot at, blow up several times, run over by a truck, set on fire, blown up again and it still is chasing her down before it gets crushed.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS
For anyone who doesn’t know, the most common form of Terminator and the one featured in this movie is basically a very robust robotic skeleton that is covered in flesh and blood and can pass for a large, muscular man.During the course of the movie’s many action scenes, the Terminator takes a lot of damage and increasingly reveals the metallic endoskeleton beneath.This degradation is first accomplished through make up appliances, which are more successful over the bony parts of the face and tend to move around on the fleshy parts.For the more extreme and demanding shots (such as when Arnie pulls his eye condom out), the movie uses an articulated dummy Schwarzenegger head which doesn’t work exactly but works more than you think it would because of Schwarzenegger’s appropriately bland performance.Once the flesh has burned off the robot, it is realized through stop motion and an articulated life-sized puppet.The stop motion is not perfect but it works well enough.
The Terminator, on the cover of Cigar Aficionado.
SEQUELS
Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines 2003
Terminator Salvation 2009
DVD AVAILABILITY
There a few different version available.I picked up a Terminator/Robocop double feature set at Target for $7.50 that has little in the way of special features (although it does have the original treatment, and two drafts of the screenplay).
The Terminator is also available on Blu-Ray.
Now I know why you bleed.
SEE ALSO
The Matrix 1999
THE TRAILER
Thoughts:
1. Love seeing the old Orion logo!
2. "In the 21st Century..." Ha ha.
3. Heavy on the future stuff...kinda misleading.
4. How you gonna show the endoskeleton like that in the trailer? That's like a trailer for Boogie Nights that gives you a nice long shot of Donny Wahlberg's wang.
5. Ahnold without eyebrows is really terrifying.
6. I can't believe they used the cop in the alley! That guy is the worst actor in the whole movie. At least they left out the part where Reese asks him the year and he's like, "Whaaaaaaaaaaa?"
7. The trailer is kinda long by modern standards. Nowadays its get in get the premise out and get the hell out. Do we really need to know Reese's serial number before we figure out if we want to see the movie or not?
8. Love that great shot of the camera slowly creeping up to Sarah as she is seated in the club while she fearfully looks up.
8. Makes me want to see Terminator again,
RIP OFFS?
The Terminator supposedly borrows some plot points from a couple of episodes of the old Outer Limits show (specifically “Demon with a Glass Hand” and “Soldier”) that were penned by famed science fiction writer Harlan Ellison. There was a law suit and now Mr. Ellison receives special credit on prints of the movies.
The character in the 1980's, when shorts were short.
Finally! You get to play with the hero's dad!
If I had it my way, your outfit wouldn't clash so badly.
And they didn't use this 2002 design, why?.
