The Phantom of the Opera (1962) Review

When Hammer Films was on a roll remaking classic horror stories the idea of revisiting a masked man lurking in an opera house was inevitable. What they never imagined was that the surefire hit would be anything but. This film bombed so spectacularly that it nearly ended the director’s career. Uneven and draggy, the new Phantom failed to terrify audiences despite some redeeming qualities to the production.

Imagine having Cary Grant playing one of the most famous movie villains of all time. Imagine that the movie would be made by Hammer Films, a studio having massive success releasing color remakes of black and white classic horror flicks. Imagine the box office receipts!

That’s the thinking that started The Phantom of the Opera remake into fast development. What was finally unveiled to the public not only lacked the superstar actor, but also the frights of Gaston Leroux’s novel. There is some confusion as to whether Grant may have been set to star as either the titular villain or the heroic lead, however it really doesn’t matter since he wouldn’t have been able to save this rather bloodless movie.

The Brides of Dracula (1960) Review

This sequel was the obligatory follow up to Hammer Films monster of a hit Horror of Dracula. Beset by production problems from the very beginning, what was put out certainly wasn’t what the public expected. Dripping more atmosphere than blood, the unusually warm and character driven story focused more on the heroic acts of Doctor Van Helsing than the villainy of the undead.

Most people remember Hammer for their vampire films, especially those starring Christopher Lee as Dracula. He isn’t in this one due to personal fears of being typecast (supremely ironic given what happened later), however this movie is one of the better entries in the genre even if the title is false advertising. Yeah, the character Dracula isn’t in it either.

Into the Last Quarter

2015 has gotten away from me, I realized when seeing October arrive so quickly. Last year was difficult due to my father’s travails, but still, things got done. Not so this year and I find myself trying to play catch up while falling further behind.

My health hasn’t been catastrophically bad, however it has been bad by even my lowered expectations. Nothing I planned for the year has been accomplished or will be before 2016 rolls around. Simply there is no energy to go around with too many things needing doing.

Between that becoming glaringly obvious and the rather somber tone of General Conference this weekend, I’ve found myself less than motivated. Plowing on is the only plan with no real hope of progress in this desolate world filled with superficiality dominating the culture.

Ah well.

Super Bad Moon Rising

While the title sounds like the name of a pretentious rock band, the lunar eclipse that happened last night was truly a “super moon” as well as a “blood moon.” Heralded by some nitwits as a sign that the world was ending, it only brought about a final battle between photographers and the ever dimming lunar face.

Okay, make that just one photographer, me.

After a week of feeling fairly terrible, the rare combination of fair skies and a rare celestial event prompted me to get the telescope out last night. Once outside, the amazing amount of light pouring out of the sky into an only slightly hazy atmosphere led to the brilliant idea of trying to take some photographs. Brilliant idea or merely a touch of lunacy? That ended up becoming the question of the night.

Summer 2015 Capsule Movie Reviews

In the past I’ve written a few mini-reviews of films after seeing them in theater, but this year I’ve been too tired or busy to type my impressions. So better late than never here are three micro-reviews of films I’ve seen this summer at the nearby Spring Grove Cinema.

Jurassic World

First a disclaimer has to be made: I’ve never been a fan of the franchise despite being a kaiju and science fiction lover. The first flick was entertaining, if not very memorable, and what little I saw of the sequels they were pretty abysmal. This opinion puts me in a tiny minority, of course. So it was with low expectations I went into the darkened theater to watch dinosaurs once again run amok.

Expecting a popcorn based confection with no style or substance, I was very surprised to find a genuinely tasty plot blended perfectly with intelligent action along with surprising amounts of emotional moments. Likeable characters played by Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard carried the movie mainly due to a very cookie cutter villain played by Vince D’Onofrio (see Daredevil on Netflix to see what he’s really capable of) and a mixed effort by the supporting cast.

Great Video on CG in Modern Movies

I have been known to complain about poor computer generated special effects in movies and also films that seem to exist only to bombard the audience with artificial imagery, so this video was of great interest during my browsing the Net today. Particularly fascinating is the usage of CG for things we don't even notice -- watch the whole thing. It may change your viewpoint. The final analysis is something I agree with and bless Rocket Jump for including Ray Harryhausen's work at the end.

July is Already Ending?!

It has been well over a month since my last post and time has not flown by, yet seems to have escaped me instead. Still haven’t even taken notes for my next movie review, though I did glance at the movie briefly while making sure the PC monitor is still calibrated. Being an early adopter of Windows 10 meant finessing the video settings on my Nvidia GTX 670, though I’m one of the lucky ones with no Nvidia Windows 10 problems (other than having to enable vertical sync in all games).

A lot has happened since the middle of June, including FFT (Forced Family Time) when my sister and her family visited the week before Independence Day. Starting with cleaning house before hand, I’ve been run into the ground this summer making life quite difficult.

So what does that have to do with bald eagles?