I just finished watching David Allen’s The Primevals. I’d seen an adulterated version of this several months ago – I’d hoped to give the film its New England premiere at Arisia 2024, but they yanked it just before the convention. God knows why – it’s the perfect venue, and would have been great advertising.
This was a project almost half a century in the making. David Allen is one of the (sadly) lesser-known masters of stop-motion animation. He did a lot of work in commercials (including the Pillsbury dough boy, and a King Kong commercial for Volkswagen), animated the giant monster at the end of Flesh Gordon, and did a lot of work for Spielberg in the 1980s (batteries not included, Young Sherlock Holmes).
**The Primevals was a project he’d been working on since the 1970s. It got a cover teatment in the magazine Cinefantastique back in 1978, and I’ve been looking for it ever since
Despite repeated attempts to get it together, Allen never quite succeeded, and died in 1999, his work incomplete. A couple of crowdfunded efforts finally got it made, with help from animators Phil Tippett, Jim Danforth, and Ernie Farino. I have no idea how they filmed and put this together, but there’s footage with Robert Cornthwaite (most famous as the arrogant professor in the original The Thing, and who appeared in other science fiction films and pastiches), who died in 2005.
The film looks gorgeous, and any blemishes on decades-old footage has been removed. The animation is smooth and strobe-free, and blends almost seamlessly with the backgrounds. The scenery is great, and the musical score is top-notch. The acting and the action scenes could be better, but it’s a helluva lot better than Planet of Dinosaurs.
It’s worth seeing just to watch the sweep of concepts and images, which is almost a smorgasbord of stop-motion animation subjects. Worth a look even if you’re not a fan of stop-motion. Worth a couple of looks if you are.
Ok, I watched this and I dismissed this as sort of vaguely based on events, largely not anything like as dramatic, or involved, so not really based on reality. I’d be interested if it really was based on this, because it was just so out there a tale. I can imagine Maxwell and Co were after the rights, but all the later intrigue was almost certainly made up, I reckon.
We were watching a movie the other day that featured a baby carriage and steps (it wasn’t The Untouchables, but now I’m drawing a blank on what it was), so we went back and rewatched that scene from Battleship Potemkin. Really ambitious & impressive.
We recently watched El Conde which is a Chilean horror movie. It turns out Pinochet is a 250 year old vampire living on a ranch since he faked his death. His family has assembled to get him to reveal where he hid all the money he stole. It’s very funny, but I’m sure that a lot of the political satire was lost on me, a non-Chilean.
I also watched The Swimmer starring Burt Lancaster and I can’t get it out of my head. It’s such a surreal movie for someone like Lancaster to star in.
It helps if you know the history of Chile and the Pinochet family, especially their relationship to the UK. It’s political satire using the horror genre to make its point.
Civil War on Max. Kirsten Dunst (hubby Jesse Plemons in a bit part). Modern-day USA is in the middle of a civil war. A team of reporters is trying to cover it. Fairly apocalyptical and the worst of human nature.
We tried to watch it last night, but my wife only made it ten minutes into the movie, due to the extreme violence. I finished it after she went to bed. (I compare it to Children of Men, also brutal urban warfare.)
Angel (1984). I remember when the movie came out and the poster had two images of Angel with the text: "High School honor student by day - Hollywood hooker by night. Never got to see it in the theater since I was too young even though it was enticing.
Just finished watching it and what a sleazy flick. At the same time I did enjoy it. The fact that it had Rory Calhoun, Dick Shawn and John Deihl from Miami Vice made it watchable.
And my favorite part of the movie is seeing the old street scenes and old cars from the 80s. Now I want to watch the two follow-ups to the movie.
Found it on FilmRise. Has a nice selection of films with a few commercials. Free and doesn’t require an account.
It’s an interesting and thought provoking story. Weird and disturbing.
Of course it’s won a bunch of International awards. Critics eat up Artsy films.
A crew of genetically altered humans are sent on a salvage mission. They find the ship with its crew dead except for one survivor. He appears unstable and doesn’t talk.
The story involves learning what happened. The enhanced humans begin experiencing emotions slowly start changing.
It’s thought provoking science fiction. Any entertainment is secondary.
One short-coming is the genetically altered humans. They’re supposed to have superior intelligence and education. But the characters walk around like stone faced Vulcans. Otherwise they’re nothing special.
It’s like the old lady who goes to see Hamlet for the first time in her life. When asked what she thought of it, she says, “I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s just one cliche after another.”
I tried to tell my daughter that Lion King is more or less a form of the Hamlet story…except everyone dies(except Horatio) in the original, so Disney definitely decided to make a few changes.
Question: Been awhile since Hamlet for me. Does any major character live aside from Horatio? Would not count Fortinbras, who I remember just shows up at the end and says, “What???”
